The Infinite Bridge

“Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn.” Martin Heidegger

…I am amazed by how much I am learning from the readings I am doing on ePortfolios. The freshest ideas in teaching I have come across lately are in Darren Cambridge’s ePortfolios for Lifelong Learning and Assessment (Wiley, 2010).  I especially like the balance he strikes between the “symphonic” and the “networked” identities of the ePortfolio author today.  He is absolutely right.  The networked identity is driven to write fast and often, even if only short pieces, and based on fleeting day-to-day experiences (i.e., journaling).  The symphonic identity, on the other hand, is the more crafted (reflected-upon) product that comes from our more traditional sense of authorship (and the “finished”piece).   I appreciate how the ideal fully developed ePortfolio realizes both of them:  the  “connected speaker” and the “solitary author.”

What does it mean “to open education”?  Does it mean taking in anyone who wants to be a student and attend a course?  The way we did in the community colleges years ago?  We called it “open admissions.”  Is that what we mean by “open teaching and learning?” Maybe.  Online learning approximates the classroom-based encounter (but, of course, without the “residential experience”), especially when audio and video technology is used.   Some would say you don’t need to have the “residential experience” at all as long as you can have  “learning happen” any other way.  For them, a good approximation is good enough (i.e., “no significant difference”). Others would settle for nothing less than the “hybrid classroom.”  They want both.  And it is for them that the well networked campus is designed.

Just as in all writing processes, it takes persistence and patience to build enough momentum before blogging can come to one naturally.  Millions of people do it, of course.  And many of them may find it quick and easy to learn.  On the other hand many more find any kind of writing (let alone writing fast and in public) quite difficult.  They have to discipline themselves to make blogging a “natural process.” I am one of the latter.  Yes, I used to teach composition and still do a lot of writing in varied contexts.  But blogging is still a hard act.  You have to have patience and persistence (read “revise”) before the activity can evolve a natural rhythm.

..stands on it’s own.  It was conceived as an experiment to answer not only the question, “Who am I?” but also, “Who can I become?”  The theme I am exploring is perpetual evolution as a way of being and understanding one’s self.  This portfolio…

“…I am a straddler, a fence-sitter, a lifelong cyclist perpetually falling forward into the future. Such is life on the infinite bridge…”  Welcome to my portfolio.  Here you will find textual and multimedia artifacts I have selected to showcase the “centrist” qualities of my personality and life-experiences.  Nothing you will find in this portfolio stands by itself for there will always be something else, different, sometimes even contradictory, to balance it out.  In that sense,this portfolio, as all portfolios do, needs to be reviewed and judged as a whole.